The father of Madeleine McCann has urged David Cameron to “do the right thing” and accept the Leveson blueprint for press regulation, insisting it is the “minimum” required by victims of press abuses.

Lord Justice Leveson highlighted coverage of the youngster’s 2007 disappearance on a family holiday in Portugal as an example of how stories were allowed to run “totally out of control”.

Her parents, Gerry and Kate, were treated like a commodity as an “insatiable” hunt for headlines led to the sacrifice not only of the search for the truth but of their “dignity, privacy and well-being”, he said.

Mr McCann, who gave evidence to the inquiry, welcomed the results of the 16-month inquiry, but said it should have gone further – ending self-regulation and making journalists and photographers more accountable.

While the couple were paid damages for some of the coverage, no-one was “brought to task”, he said, adding that there should also be more accountability of individual reporters and photographers.

Speaking to BBC Radio4 he said: “Many of the newspapers almost certainly knew what they were writing was not correct, or at least they certainly could not verify it, but the pound signs made them print it,” he said.

But without such additions “full implementation of Lord (Justice) Leveson’s report is the minimum acceptable compromise for me and I think for many other victims who have suffered at the hands of the press”, he added.

“The Prime Minister and our other elected politicians have an opportunity now to do the right thing. And if they do the right thing, for the public, then it will help restore a little confidence.

“I clearly respect his opinion but I personally disagree with the viewpoint and Lord (Justice) Leveson, as a senior law judge of our country, has made clear that what he is proposing is not a state-run press.

“It is a fine distinction but without the statutory underpinning this system will not work.”

He said “ludicrous” press coverage of the case - which suggested there was strong evidence to link the couple to their daughter’s disappearance - continued to cast a shadow over their family.

“Thankfully, for us, I would say the vast majority of the British public did not believe what was written.

“It doesn’t mean it wasn’t damaging and could have destroyed our life. And if you go on to the internet there is still a tremendous amount of vile (sic) written about us that was fuelled by those stories.

“We have to face that going forwards on a daily basis and our twins, who are almost eight, will have to deal with that, particularly as they start to access the internet and Google themselves and their parents and Madeleine.”

Mrs McCann said yesterday that Mr Cameron should “embrace the report and act swiftly”.

“I welcome Lord Leveson’s report and hope it will mark the start of a new era for our press in which it treats those in the news responsibly, with care and consideration,” she said.

Giving evidence to the inquiry last November, Mrs McCann said she felt like “climbing into a hole and not coming out” when the News of the World printed her intensely personal diary, which she began after Madeleine disappeared.

The diary, which was so private Mrs McCann did not even show it to her husband, was published in the News of the World on Sunday September 14 2008. The newspaper later apologised.